Any cuisines where top chefs don’t make their own recipes?

Cafe Society
1

I was reading a book on Japanese culture. It made the fairly obvious point top Japanese chefs rarely invent new recipes. Traditionally, they mastered ancient techniques and sourced the best ingredients but placed little focus on innovation.

Is this true of any other cuisines? Is it generally true in Japan? Technique and tradition are obviously important to any top chef. Italians sometimes grumble about new ingredients in beloved dishes. But in which cuisines is innovation widely discouraged?

2

It certainly is not true of Mexican, French, American hybrids or many other cuisines.

I doubt it is true of “Chinese” like Szechuan or Hunan, even though these are highly traditional. But I am not an expert on them. I don’t know very much about Korean food TBH.

Maybe it is not true of modern Japanese food. I have only been to Japan once, however. I saw very few deviations from my stereotype of what would be considered traditional.